


Full Immunity

by Zinnith



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Character Study, Ethics, Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-16
Updated: 2011-03-16
Packaged: 2017-10-17 01:04:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/171234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zinnith/pseuds/Zinnith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Danny’s conscience speaks in Grace’s voice these days.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Full Immunity

**Author's Note:**

> This discussion has been raised before by people more talented than me, but I still had to get it off my chest before I go back to the shinyhappyfun. Unbeta'd so feel free to point out any mistakes I might have made.

Danny used to keep to the straight and narrow, do things by the book. That has been changing lately, more and more for every day. _He_ has been changing, and it scares him.

He clings to rules and procedure because it’s something he needs, something to keep him on an even keel when his anger threatens to get the better of him. There is a right way and a wrong way to do things, and he’ll be damned if he’s going to pick the wrong way.

But that was before he got pulled into Steve McGarrett’s world. Before he saw all the crazy, stupid, impossible things Steve does and _gets away with_. It’s wrong, Danny knows it’s wrong, but he can’t help but admire the simplicity of it, the way Steve just throws the book right out the window and gets shit done anyway. To be honest, Danny wishes he felt _more_ uncomfortable about it. He’s beginning to feel like it’s far too easy to get used to the way Steve works.

Chin Ho was a regular cop back in the day and there are times Danny wants to ask him if it bothers him too, all the things they do. Then again, Danny asked around when the McGarrett case first landed on his desk and he found out that McGarrett Senior was an old school kind of cop, that he wasn’t afraid to cut a few corners to get results. Maybe Chin took his cues from Jack the same way Kono takes hers from Steve.

Danny’s conscience speaks in Grace’s voice these days. There was a time when it didn’t even need a voice, when it was simply _there_ , quiet and steady and reliable. Now, he has to think about how many lines he can cross and still be Gracie’s dad. After every closed case, he studies his own face in the mirror, pretends he’s under her scrutiny. As long as he can fall back on Gracie’s voice in the back of his head, he’ll be okay. He does his best to be that voice for Steve, because he’s fairly sure that Steve doesn’t even have the frailest whisper of his own.

It’s not the questionable interrogation techniques that bothers him the most. Danny hates to admit it to himself, but it all makes a twisted kind of sense. Why the hell should they stop to consider the constitutional rights of the criminal scumbags who cross their path when they can make a _difference_? He knows that the end does not justify the means, knows it in his heart like it’s written there in permanent marker. But he’s afraid that the words are beginning to fade, that one day he’ll take a look and find the place where they used to be blank and clean, giving him free reins to do whatever he wants to get the job done.

What keeps him awake at night is the lack of consequences. No one questions the Governor’s task force, no one holds them accountable but the Governor herself. It makes Danny wonder how far they’d be able to go before she puts her foot down and says ‘enough’. What if she never does? Will they be able to hit the brake on their own?

Danny keeps a list in his head, tries to create a structure. He figures that as long as he has some kind of a moral code to hold onto, he’ll be in the clear. The rules don’t apply when innocent lives are at stake. They don’t apply when it’s family. They don’t apply when it’s personal. The problem is that everything is beginning to get personal. There are always lives at stake. The excuses keep piling up.

He wonders what will happen when the day comes that he won’t even need an excuse. He hopes that he’ll have the strength to turn in his badge and just walk away. Above all else, he hopes that he’ll recognise the point of no return when he comes to it. That he’ll be able to turn back instead of crossing that line in Steve’s wake.

He just wishes that he could be sure.


End file.
